


Distracting Enough

by TheWaitingFangirl



Series: Old Things Made New [2]
Category: The Last of Us
Genre: Comfort Sex, F/M, Fluff and Smut, Helicopter Dad Joel, Joel just needs a hug, Light Separation Anxiety, Soft sex, Sweet, Touchy-Feely, Worried Joel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-29
Updated: 2019-09-29
Packaged: 2020-11-01 11:20:49
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,573
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20814284
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheWaitingFangirl/pseuds/TheWaitingFangirl
Summary: Joel is worried because worrying is what he does best. He doesn't like the idea of Ellie going out on patrol duty, especially with him grounded at Jackson and unable to go with her - and he knew he struggled with seeing her for what she really was becoming, a brave and skilled woman who'd eventually grow out of his grasp. He felt like she was growing too fast.Luckily enough, there were ways to avoid thinking about it and pleasant distractions to keep it like that.





	Distracting Enough

**Author's Note:**

> *crawls out of the sewer i came from with yet another piece of unrequested erotica*
> 
> I went headfirst into the TLOU fandom mostly because I never actually left *manic cackling* and now that the new game is coming, there's content, believe it or not and I am THRIVING. I have waited 5 years for this. 
> 
> Hello, new hyperfixation???

Joel let out a tired sigh as he sat down on the mattress. He could only hope that Jesse would listen to him, the fool, and keep out of patrolling the areas where he had pointed out in the map. He never liked the idea of Ellie going out on patrol, as well prepared as he knew she was. It was risky, way too risky, and there were other things to be made around Jackson that could use a few extra hands.

Ellie was brave and smart, she knew how to handle herself. He knew that.

But the main problem was that _he_ wouldn’t be there to help keep her safe.

That made Joel feel hesitant. It wasn’t that he didn’t trust her to be careful, it wasn’t that, he just worried for her — because no one, except for Tommy, Maria and himself knew about her condition; and it terrified him, the probability of someone else finding out. What would the other people of Jackson say or even _think_ if they were aware Ellie had been bitten and didn’t turn?

The possibility settled heavily at the pit of Joel’s stomach, giving him a thrill of anxiety. He’d offer himself to go; despite his weathered body, he knew he could handle it just fine, but Tommy had asked him to keep watch of the carpentry. He sighed, rubbing a heavy hand across his face.

“If you think any harder I’m afraid your head is going to explode,” she said casually and Joel couldn’t help but scoff at the remark. He turned to look back at her, lying in bed right beside him with a book in hands. “You worry too much about her, Joel.”

“I know,” he whispered in a soft voice, rolling his shoulders to shake off the tension in his muscles the cold brought with it, “I’m just having a hard time getting my head around it, ‘s all.”

She laughed then, an ungraceful little snort. “Around what? That she’s growing up, old man?”

Joel shook his head in amusement, turning to look at the woman. “You’re not that much younger than me, you know.”

“Rude,” she said in a monotonous voice, definitely unimpressed, “a knight in shining armor, ain’t you?”

[Name] was an old friend of his, if he could say so. Back from before the Outbreak, Tommy would tease him about how they tiptoe-d around each other; flirting, even having sex a couple times, but never putting a name to whatever they had. Joel reflected that naming the situation between them both, whatever it was, would make it much more real. Too real for his liking and to hers as well, not to mention he had Sarah. The timing just never felt right and so, nothing really came out of it.

Back in the day, she used to be a consultant to the company he worked for as a carpenter and it wasn’t until much longer until some sort of friendship appeared. Joel had distinct memories of drinking at the porch of his house with Tommy and [Name] on late summer nights. There were even nights in which he’d sing, believe it or not.

He missed it, he came to conclusion.

Imagine his surprise, then, when he came back from Salt Lake City with Ellie and a heavy heart to see her casually talking with Tommy like he hadn’t known about the woman’s whereabouts for the last 20 years. She had rushed over to him, wrapping her arms around his body into a tight hug while mumbling something about not believe he was still alive. Joel had almost forgotten what relief felt like after the whole nightmare in Salt Lake City, but he embraced it willingly.

Tommy later explained that she had wandered near Jackson County about a week ago, half-wild and starving and they nearly had shot her dead before he recognized her. It was hard to believe that the easygoing woman back from the day was still alive and kicking, especially after all this time. After they had drifted apart, Joel following with the Hunters and Tommy siding with the Fireflies, afraid of what had become of him… he hated thinking about that. He had never heard of her after reaching Boston, assuming she had left with Tommy, never to be seen again.

It wasn’t much later, then — and to no one’s surprise —, that they had gotten together after meeting in Jackson County. In a world like this, there wasn’t much time to waste, he had come to realize. She wasn’t wary of him like most people, welcoming his presence back into her life like one would to an old friend whom was missed dearly. He was lonely, he figured, and so was she, it was crystal clear; and what followed was just as obvious.

“As ever,” he smirked, moving to lay down in bed with a groan. “I just think Ellie is too young to be going out on patrols like that.”

“Joel,” she sighed, setting the book down on her lap. “Ellie is nearly twenty. You have to let her go, eventually.”

He sighed in return, mostly because he knew she was right. “I just worry about her, [Name].”

“You’re not going to lose her,” she spoke softly, reaching out to touch his arm and he was thankful for the half-light of the bedroom. She had been there with him and Tommy, the night of the Outbreak, knew about what had happened to Sarah — and, once more, Joel was thankful for her not mentioning his daughter’s name. “Ellie knows her way around the infected. She has Dina. You should trust her.”

“I trust her,” Joel protested, turning his head at the woman, the smell of lavender surrounding him as he shifted. He thought he’d never have the chance to smell clean sheets again in his life, “just can’t trust whatever’s outside Jackson, you know that.”

She nodded sagely, her hands moving to card through his greying hair. It felt nice, he had told her once, so it had become a habit — and she loved fixing his hair, for some reason. “Go see her tomorrow,” she said gently, making Joel close his eyes, “wish her a safe patrol, she’ll know you want her to stay out of trouble.”

He let out a breath, nodding in agreement. “You’re probably right,” Joel said quietly, mumbling a bit.

The woman hummed, now caressing his temple. Joel tried opening his eyes, noticing the lights were out, the only source of illumination coming through the window; an eerie cool beam of moonlight. It was comforting, in a way; but still not enough to ease his mind. He wanted to tell Ellie not to go, but he knew it’d only anger her.

Joel sighed. Ellie could be so stubborn sometimes, so incredibly hot-headed, it was hard to keep track of her — ever since from the beginning, he reminisced now. It wasn’t like he was hoping she’d change, he wouldn’t want that in a million years, since he had learned to adore Ellie in her own quirky way; comic books addict and foul mouthed as she was.

He just… worried. He wanted to keep her safe, for God’s sake. Maybe she was growing too fast.

“Come back to me, Texas,” the woman beside him whispered, her light touch now running over his forehead in a gentle caress. Joel smiled, eyes slipping closed in appreciation as she bent down to press a kiss at the corner of one of them. “Don’t wander too far, now.”

He hummed a response, noncommittal as ever, instead nudging his nose against her cheek. “I’m right here.”

She scoffed lightly, now caressing his cheek, fingertips brushing the coarse hair of his beard. She used to do that before, he commented to himself in the quietness of the room, secretive and with a hint of satisfaction. “I like that,” she whispered softly, bending down to press a kiss to the tip of his nose, “when you’re still enough for me to touch you.”

At that, Joel smiled more widely. He was guilty to say that he felt a twitch of interest down there, but chose not to say anything about it. Casual intimacy was just as good at times, he didn’t feel the desperate fiery need he used to, like before — sure enough, he still got hard, he wasn’t _dead_, but it wasn’t as much of a need as it used to be when he was much younger; in a world that resembled nothing the one in which he lived now.

He felt her hand slide down to his neck, fingernails scratching the sensitive skin there, making him shudder a bit. Oh, he knew her game.

“Gimme a kiss,” he whispered softly, not even opening his eyes as he reached out for the back of her head; and she obliged happily, pecking his lips a couple times before allowing it to deepen. She tasted of toothpaste they produced at Jackson and he remembered distantly that she had gone with the others to harvest the leaves of mint the other day.

He sighed into it, gratefully. The simple things, the makeshift resemblance of normalcy they kept in Jackson was enough to keep Joel from losing his damn mind. He had clean sheets for the first time after almost 20 years, toothpaste that wasn’t the expired liquid-y goo the military would distribute at the Quarantine Zone, and he was kissing someone whom he dared to say he loved.

They barely said it out loud, of course, still clinging to the old time habit of tiptoeing around each other, even when aware of each other’s feelings. It made him surprised, sometimes; but it also felt good — after all the gruesome shit he’s seen and gone through especially, sometimes too good to be true, making him wonder if he truly deserved it.

But when she offered him a spot in her bed and a warm caress to his cheek, he hardly ever felt the need to complain about it.

Her hands moved downwards to caress his chest and Joel hummed, now a little more interested at it. She chuckled lightly, leaning for another kiss and he indulged her gladly, a hand coming to rest at her shoulders and squeezing gently. It was familiar and intimate, things he had thought were far gone by now and lucky to have found once more. She pressed her palm to his stomach, hiking up the fabric of his grey sleep shirt, pulling it up until the clothing bunched around her fingers and Joel could feel the need building up down below.

“Ease up a little,” she whispered, sugar sweet and intoxicating, and Joel knew he’d cave in without a second thought, “you worry too much, Joel.”

The way she said his name sent shivers down his spine, her fingertips brushing the sensitive skin of his stomach and gently tracing the tiny little scars that littered his body. With anyone else, he’d have been embarrassed — and he was, at the start, tensing up whenever her exploratory touch reached his skin —, but now he found it to be comforting. She had even kissed the scar on his midsection where he had been impaled once, when it still was rosy and angry. He sighed into the kiss as she gently brushed the sensitive area of his navel.

“You want to distract me?,” he asked in a low voice, chuckling quietly when she smirked mischievously at him. “Think you’re up for the task, mhm?”

“Oh, Joel,” she whispered, now pressing down harder in order to reach his half hard cock over the soft fabric of his sleeping shorts, palming it gently, “I can do much more than that.”

He groaned, a quiet little breath. No matter how much time passed, he still couldn’t be as loud as he used to be, having grown taciturn and brooding with time — not meaning that he didn’t have desires or needs, but when being quiet was a matter of life or death, old habits were hard to shake off.

“Aren’t you tired?,” he asked, just to be polite. Joel knew he could roll over and go to sleep — or even rush to the bathroom and take care of himself — should she hesitate. He never meant to impose, but he died a little bit and came back right again on the inside each time she touched him. “You don’t have to if you don’t… _ah_—“

Her hand had slipped into the shorts, now touching his feverish skin with the ease of someone confident in what they were doing. She was a go-getter like that, Joel mused to himself, perhaps enjoying the gentle way which she held him, pumping slowly. He spread his thighs a little, allowing her room to keep touching him to her heart’s content and the woman hummed sweetly, stealing a quick kiss from him.

“You don’t have to do anythin’, cowboy,” she whispered into his ear, nuzzling into his shoulder and planting a quick kiss there before shuffling in bed and straddling him, just above the hips. Joel’s hands immediately moved to her thighs, fingertips gently digging into the soft skin as he looked up at her. “Just enjoy yourself.”

With the moonlight catching the side of her face like that, Joel thought to himself, she looked positively goddess-like. The nightgown bunched up around her hips, riding further as she bent forwards to kiss him again, one hand against his chest as the other pressed down on the mattress for balance and the whole thing it was—

It was just achingly soft.

He kept his eyes closed for the time being, feeling himself get harder with time as she kissed him; a quiet hum coming from the back of his throat every time she rolled her hips against him and the head of his cock received a little pressure, even through the shorts. “Yeah,” he breathed out, wrapping a strong arm around her back to keep her from pulling back. She gasped, pressing her cheek to his as he rolled up, slow and gentle, against her.

Joel pushed up, shifting around until he could half-rest his back against the wooden panel — a wooden panel! — of the bed. It creaked precariously, but held on nicely and he groaned, feeling her press down on his cock. He felt way too hot now, pressing kisses to her collarbone like he’d done many times before, gentle and reverent; and her fingers dug into his hair as she hummed appreciatively. They massaged his scalp, scratching the base of his neck ever so often as to elicit a held back moan from him.

“Joel,” she sighed out, appraisingly. No matter how many times he’d heard his name on her lips, the way she’d say it always twisted his guts up into something tight and needy, too urgent to ignore. “Joel…”

“Yeah,” he agreed to nothing in particular following her lead as hands, a lot smaller than his, pushed down the cotton shorts he wore, just enough to free him. She took it in her hands, squeezing gently without really looking and Joel had to open his eyes at that, stare at her adoring face right in front of his; and he couldn’t help but press another kiss to her lips.

She moans quietly when one of his hands cup her backside into a secure grasp, not demanding, but firm. The kiss is filthy, he admits, full of tongue and teeth and need, but he thrives in it for the time being, because it feels right. Her hips move back, hand still holding him still and—

The first brush is always exquisite, Joel thinks, closing his eyes and drawing her closer to his chest in a loving manner. She moans again, this time a little louder, and he mutters something sweet into her ear, kissing her as he caresses the skin between her shoulder blades. When she rolls her hips down, the bed creaks again, and Joel hisses quietly; closing his eyes in bliss.

She clings to him, then, soft and warm in the coolness of the night, and Joel could swear that every time they do this seems to be his favorite. He kisses her neck, pressing his forehead there as he follows her lead, the both of them falling into rhythm easily. It’s slow and gentle, the feeling of it enough to make his heart flutter in his chest like it hadn’t in a long time and her fingers carding through his hair only added up to the feeling.

“_Ah_, [Name]…,” he gasps, trying to catch her gaze with his through half-lidded eyelids and the look in her face is tender beyond anything he’s ever felt before, like it might just smother him then and there. Joel groans quietly, hugging her body to his as her free arm wraps around his neck as means to anchor herself, “_shit_…”

“Yeah,” she half laughed, pressing her lips to his temple in a manner he was too familiar with. It felt like he was about to burn up from the inside out, the closeness of her body against his enough to make his head fuzzy with all the sensations. She rocked slowly against him, savoring the feeling and he shuddered at it, a hand sliding up and down her back in a languid caress. “Is this distracting enough for you?,” she asked with a teasing lilt, voice breathy against his cheek.

Joel frowned in confusion for a moment before catching up on what she was talking about. He chuckled then, nuzzling into her chest in order to press a kiss to the hollow dip below her throat, licking his way up to the junction between shoulder and neck to settle there. “Might’ve overdone it a little, but I ain’t complaining.”

She laughed a little, cupping his face in her hands and he had to look up at her, almost reverently. “Give me a kiss, cowboy,” she cocked her head to the side, already leaning into him. Joel moaned quietly at the way the angle shifted ever so slightly, kissing her back fervently; gasping for air any time he could because right now he couldn’t bear, ever _possibly_ phantom the idea, of pulling away.

He could feel the beginnings of release starting to pool low at the base of his stomach, nearly stealing his breath away. Joel’s fingers twined between the hair at the base of her neck and they shared an equally needy shuddering gasp, taking up the moment to simply stare into each other. She looked soft, he concluded immediately, with half-lidded eyes and kiss-raw lips and an adorable crimson flush creeping up from the base of her neck to her cheeks.

“_Fuck_, Joel,” she whimpered, closing her eyes and pushing her head back into his hand, in order to expose more skin to him. He wasted no time, then, pressing wet sloppy kisses to the sensitive skin there. She breathed out slowly, now picking up the pace of her hips, and Joel felt himself blush at the occasional sound of wetness coming from where their bodies joined.

“Yeah?,” he asked in a strained voice, a question with no particular intent, but she nodded anyways, biting her lower as he thrust up with a gasp of his own. She clung to him, wriggling against his hardness like she knew what she wanted.

“Cum for me,” she whispered sweetly, cupping his face in adoration as she teased small kisses from his lips. Joel wrapped his arms around her body more securely, reveling at how she molded against him, the bed creaking loudly in protest as they became a little more erratic. And he couldn’t help, not really, not when looked so perfect like that, holding him with the same intensity she had always done, even before the outbreak.

He gasped again, feeling the tight clench of her impossibly hot sex on his, and when he looked up at her, the silent scream of her face was enough to send him toppling over the edge; his orgasm building up just as softly as their lovemaking had been. Joel shuddered out a breath, letting her ride out the last of her own climax before leaning forwards on top of him. He smiled, closing his eyes as his hands came up to rub her back.

She stretched, humming pleasantly at it. He was still inside of her, he thought idly. In another time, maybe, they would’ve gone for it again, but right now wasn’t another time and, quite frankly, he wouldn’t trade it for anything in the whole world. Joel took a breath, burrowing his face into her neck and noting the dull smell lavender soap.

Her lips found his temple again, kissing softly before he could roll them over to allow her to settle beside him. She curled up on his shoulder, mumbling something about being cold as an excuse to rest her head right next to his.

Joel let his head slide on the pillow until it touched hers and he sighed quietly.

“Wake me in the morning, Texas?,” she mumbled sleepily against his neck, rubbing his chest lovingly.

At that, he smiled softly. That nickname had stuck. “Yeah,” he whispered, gently pressing his head to hers.

It was unspoken, but she knew. He knew that she knew. But they wouldn’t talk about it in the morning, for the cover of the night was far better suited for that sort of thing.

_Thank you._

**Author's Note:**

> pwease feed me with comments i am starving


End file.
